Wi-Fi Direct is a wireless local area network (WLAN) technology according to a Wi-Fi standard that enables Wi-Fi enabled devices to connect with each other without requiring a wireless router or other network service equipment and to communicate at typical Wi-Fi speeds. WFD has the ability to connect devices even when they are from different manufacturers. A WFD-enabled device can negotiate a link with another WFD-enabled device with one of the devices acting as a limited wireless access point to the other device and thus forming a “WFD group”.
The WFD group can be expanded to include other devices. The WFD groups are designed to expand as star networks. Under the WFD standard, a device acting as a “group owner” of a star network is connected to several stations as a limited access point of the stations. However, a star network is inherently limited by its inability to expand beyond a physical area thus limiting the reach of the network.
The Wi-Fi Direct protocol is a technology that allows you to find nearby Wi-Fi Direct devices and form a WFD group to communicate over a peer-to-peer link without wireless access points (base stations) in the infrastructure. The Wi-Fi Direct protocol enables multiple computing devices, also referred to as “stations,” to establish a peer-to-peer star network. For example, the star network can include four member stations. When forming the star network 100 with the Wi-Fi Direct protocol, the member stations can elect one station amongst themselves as a “group owner.”
In a WFD group (e.g., the star network), the group owner works as an access point to other devices and enables the other devices to join the group as the group owner's clients. A group can be created either by negotiation between two devices or, in an autonomous mode, by a single group owner device. In a negotiation-based group creation, two devices compete by publishing respective group owner intent values. The device with the higher intent value then becomes the group owner of the WFD group, while the other device becomes a group client. In an autonomous group creation, a device becomes the group owner by itself without any group client. A Wi-Fi Direct enabled device can join an existing group by associating itself with the group owner, as long as the allowed number of clients is not exceeded.
The figures depict various embodiments of this disclosure for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the disclosure described herein.